To wire or not to wire...

[klcondry]

My husband built an ark for our four week old chickens this weekend. We put square wire across the bottom of the run because I was concerned about predators digging under. We pulled it as taught as we could, but there is some slack. I'm not too crazy about the chicks having to balance on it and I'm concerned about a leg or head getting caught in it... so for those of you with arks or runs attached to a coop - do you wire the bottom or not? Just looking for some input.
Thanks in advance!

 

[faykokoWV]

maybe use hardware cloth instead, the holes are much smaller.

 

[BankerJohn]

I laid wire down, then small rock (1/4" rock from a local quarry), then topped the rock with landscape fabric and another 3-4 inches of sand. Here are pics before the sand was added:

My "ark" is permanent and is not portable. If you are looking for portability, I'm not sure what you should do.

 

[klcondry]

Thanks to you both. I'll have to look into using hardware cloth.

@BankerJohn - I love your ark... ours is a much scaled down version that we can move around the yard. We are planning to build a more permanent coop at some point. Thanks for the tips!